


After The Rebellion

by UnifiedNations



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Cressida & Pollux's journey, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Major spoilers for Mockingjay, Nightmares, One Shot, Post-Mockingjay, Romance if you squint, SPOILERS.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:25:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnifiedNations/pseuds/UnifiedNations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the war ends, Cressida and Pollux leave the Capitol to travel through the Districts and film the recovery. (Mostly slightly fluffy ramblings, romance if you squint.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	After The Rebellion

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not fluent in sign language so I've only used basic ASL signs here, if there's any mistakes in motions or formatting please tell me!   
> (Also I am British so I only know some BSL but as The Hunger Games is American, I wrote it as such.) I also wrote this after marathonning the 4 films and haven't finished the Mockingjay book yet so I'm going off of the films interpretations of the characters.  
> Pollux & Cressida are pretty much my favourites and I really wanted to see more of them so this happened! I hope you all like it.  
> I'm always open to prompts!

It was over so quickly, scarcely anyone believed it.

The hundreds of people moving to Snow's home scarcely made a noise in the streets outside Tigris's shop where Cressida and Pollux had remained, checking their (Cressida's) weapons and the remaining camera equipment. They reckoned that it would take Katniss and Gale at least a short while to reach the mansion so they took a few moments in the cellar to collect themselves.

There wasn't much talk. Never was between the remaining two of the camera crew, even before Castor and Messalla had died. This obviously went without saying with Pollux being unable to say a word and Cressida not being one for meaningless conversation, so they spent their time together in a comfortable silence, often conveying what they wanted to say via glances and hand gestures that never quite bordered on the sign language that Pollux so often used.

This time it wasn't as comfortable. Pollux had lost his brother and Cressida had lost Messalla- losses had been expected in the mission but life for them would never be the same. 

“So. You ready?” Cressida glanced over at her cameraman as she checked the supply of ammunition, re-filling every gun the others had given her that she could carry before they would attempt to infiltrate Snow's home.

Pollux looked up from where he was switching out the power supplies to his equipment and placed his hand palm-down in the air, wiggling it in a 'so-so' motion. His eyes were still slightly red but he smiled weakly at her anyway, beginning to pack his equipment away.

Cressida smiled back, beginning to arm herself and strategically placing her guns where they wouldn't be spotted under one of Tigris's borrowed cloaks. 

The next few hours were a blur. They both heard and felt the explosions from the front line of the crowd of Capitol residents, having no idea who planned the attack or who the main casualties had been. They somehow got to the mansion without being caught by Peacekeepers- although after the deaths of the Capitol's children, none that they had seen had tried to stop them. They had filmed Snow's capture and took out the remaining guards who still seemed intent on doing their job- and it was done.

Finished, just like that.

It felt oddly incomplete, having taken The Capitol without much more of a fight, but it was done. 

It wasn't until later that they heard about Katniss and Gale surviving, Prim not and President Coin's plan- to use the surviving Capitol's children for another Hunger Games. Cressida was shocked and one look at Pollux formed the agreement between them that they would not stand with Coin if it went ahead.

Luckily, it didn't.

Katniss's plan was clear to them the second she stepped up to execute President Snow. The Katniss they had seen from her first round in the Hunger Games, from the propos they had filmed and from their final mission, would never stand for the slaughter of more innocent children even if they were from the Capitol. She was haunted, it was clear, by what she and the others had done both in the arena and out of it. By what had been done to her and Peeta and everyone else during the war. 

The remaining two of the camera crew made no move to stop Coin's assassination, neither did they move with the crowd towards the former President Snow. They stood by, watching and filming, as the two leaders were taken down and The Mockingjay was taken away.

It was silent afterwards. The crowd around Snow dispersed, revealing his corpse to the masses and someone took Coin's body away. It wasn't clear who.

Together, Cressida and Pollux left the arena and wandered in their own comfortable silence before returning to the rooms that they had been assigned. It was only a few hours before one knocked on the other's door and they spent a while sitting side-by-side without a word.

“I don't want to stay here.” Cressida broke the quiet around them, turning her head minutely to look at her cameraman. He shook his head, touching his fingertips to his chest then making a slight slicing motion.

'Me neither.'

She smiled, pulling one of her legs onto the bed and under herself. 

“So... it's just you and me now.” More silence. “What do you say we pick up where we left off? Travel the Districts, film the recovery. Everyone needs some motivation.” She suggested, leaning a little forward to more clearly see the other's face.

Pollux smiled and nodded, giving her a thumbs up, his own silent affirmation.

They left soon after, packing up their few belongings and leaving with barely a note left behind. They'd wanted to say goodbye to Katniss and maybe Peeta but by then they had already been moved, and Gale was nowhere to be found. With President Coin dead and the rest of their squad gone, there was nothing left for them there.

It didn't take long for them to find an abandoned vehicle to liberate. It was one of the Peacekeeper's armoured vehicles that had just been left near the gates by the mansion when the final bombs had dropped and other than some minor fire damage- mainly to the paintwork- it was in fine condition. Pollux managed to get it running and they left the Capitol, not looking back as their former home vanished behind them.

~*~*~*~*~

Compared to their journeys during the rebellion, this one was almost pleasant. They had taken the initiative to change the look of their vehicle to shed the image of Peacekeepers from it by using whatever they could to cover the white. Paints and dyes were plentiful in District One and they changed most of the colour before smearing some thick paint in the Mockingjay symbol of the pins they still wore, though their Mockingjay was long gone.

Their first night after they left the comfort of the Capitol was freezing. Below freezing temperature level freezing. They'd manage to knock out most of the inner heating systems- not that there was much of one to begin with- when they liberated the vehicle and until they got to District 3, there wasn't much they could do about it.

After several hours of crunching through the several inches of snow (it came up to Cressida's mid-calf) collecting footage of the First District beginning to rebuild they decided to pack up their equipment and head back to their vehicle. 

“One out of thirteen districts down. Guess we should move onto Three next? Get this thing sorted out.” Cressida patted the side of their vehicle, opening the heavy back doors and climbing in before removing her boots. Pollux followed, shutting the doors behind them and nodding rapidly as he shed his thick coat, having dusted the snow off outside. 

Cressida forewent any modesty she may have had in removing her clothes and shucked off all but her underwear, having been with Pollux too long for either to care about eachothers state of undress. She shivered as she wriggled into her sleeping bag on the floor of the vehicle, wriggling around in an attempt to gather some heat but ultimately failing. After several minutes she gave up, unzipping herself from the bag and turning to the other side of the small space where Pollux lay.

He jumped slightly when she unzipped his bag and crawled in next to him, zipping it back up and turning to face him.

“You don't mind, do you?” She asked, aware that the close contact could make him uncomfortable. To her relief he shook his head and she shifted one of his arms, laying one of hers over his chest and resting her head near his shoulder. The cameraman in turn embraced her gently and resting his chin on her hair.

The winter dragged on much longer than they felt that it should have- almost every night they found themselves sharing a sleeping bag or joining theirs together for more space. The snow kept on coming and some days it was near impossible to get outside for filming, so on those days they set up their somewhat lacking editing equipment to compile and send their recovery videos to their new leaders.

It was difficult at times- some Districts, especially the ones that had been allies to the Capitol and Snow, were hesitant or even completely resistant to letting two of the Mockingjay's former team members into their midst. Many people ignored or avoided them while filming although they were able to find people to interview and the footage for the recovery was aplenty. 

Their difficulties did not stop at the people though. Many nights they would be woken by eachother's dreams- Pollux would twitch himself awake, dry wheezes coming from his throat as his mouth opened to form his brothers name or bring himself to consciousness in a panic, dreaming of the tunnels and the dark, lonely and silent years he had spent in them. 

Cressida would startle awake to images of Massalla disintegrating beside her, arm stretched out for her to grab as he vanished before her eyes. They would both see their friend, their Mockingjay, captured and dragged away before the final battle, their friends and allies taken and murdered and gone.

When one would wake to the others night terrors they would immediately wake the sufferer- Cressida putting an arm around Pollux or taking his face in her hands and telling him that he was not alone, not left in the tunnels or abandoned to the Mutts and his brother's death was not his fault. 

Pollux would gather Cressida in his arms and tuck her close to his chest, stroking her hair and back and wordlessly letting her know that she still had him and Messalla was gone but their little group was not yet broken. He did not know of what else she dreamt of but until she wanted to tell her, he would not ask.

~*~

“Do you ever miss it?”

Pollux looked up, creasing his forehead in a silent question. They were sitting together on a pile of cleared rubble as they ate and looked over their footage. His director smiled and looked at the slowly setting sun across the horizon.

“Stability. You know, life before the rebellion... before everything happened.” She vaguely gestured at Pollux's mouth before extending the gesture to the rubble surrounding them.

Pollux exhaled heavily and looked around them, rubbing a hand over his mouth. He made an indecisive face and shrugged, before hesitating and shaking his head. He pointed his right pointer finger to his chin before raising his hand to his forehead as if tipping a cap, then placing both his hands in front of him and extending his pointer fingers and thumbs. He'd been teaching Cressida basic signs since it had just become the two of them.

'Miss brother'.

Cressida nodded, looking down.

“I know. I miss him too,” She raised her head again. “And Messalla.” There was a comfortable silence for a while, although they both were thinking. “Do you think it was worth it? Losing so many people.”

There was only a few moments hesitation before her cameraman nodded. Pollux missed his brother more than he could express and if he could then he would bring him back in a moment, but he knew that it was impossible to change what had happened. So many had died but it was over. No more would for the enjoyment of the people, for entertainment and the sick pleasure of those thought to be above them.

“I think so. For the future.”

They finished their food in silence as the sky got darker and the cleanup crews around them began to pack up. Cressida pointed at some that seemed to be loitering to speak and they went over to them, taking several interviews for their videos before bidding them goodnight.

“I don't want to go back yet,” Cressida murmured, looking at the darkened sky and rubbing her arms through her jacket. 

Pollux shrugged, stepping up beside her and tapping his own coat, wordlessly offering it to her. She nodded gratefully, waiting until he had unzipped it before she darted in, tugging the sides of the coat around her and zipping it up so they were both inside. She felt his quiet laugh as he put his coat-clad arms around them and they stood together in the rubble, staring at the sky.


End file.
